As a result of a review, new elements of learning are developed or existing ones redeveloped. Course teams work to design or redesign how learning should be delivered, resourced, supported and assessed.
Component processes: learning design, assessment design
Enabling systems: Learning design and pedagogic planning tools can help teams to explore and share new concepts and designs. Learning and administration systems are made interoperable so that information can be shared across the curriculum lifecycle.
Most formal curriculum development currently takes place through face-to-face meetings at which paper-based documents are discussed, whether this is a small team meeting to initiate a new curriculum idea, or a set-piece committee. Staff involved in the current process attach importance to these events as opportunities for different opinions to be aired, criticisms to be heard, and a shared understanding of academic purpose to emerge. At most institutions, the programme director or equivalent has a pivotal role in determining who is involved and how development proceeds.
Market research, monitoring and evaluation (iterative enhancement), and student involvement in curriculum design, are all weak spots in current development processes. Some reports indicate that curriculum innovation takes place more commonly at the informal ideas-development stage, and post-validation as individual staff develop styles of delivering a programme, rather than during the formal process which tends to be dominated by documentation.
The main cost of curriculum development is academic time:
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'Academic staff would rather avoid making changes to programmes and units because of the cost of the process, leading to the delivery of mainstream undergraduate programmes that are either out of date or do not reflect the definitive documents that have been validated.'
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considerable staff time and effort is put into developing a new proposal, even before it enters the formal University approval process, e.g. discussions at dept and school level.
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The median length of development time for new programmes over the last 4 seasons has been 2yrs, but some have taken over 4 yrs.
The 'real' drivers for curriculum development were identified in project baseline reports as follows:
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...perceived student needs, fit with existing programmes, staff interests...
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The majority of [curriculum innovations] were designed to support the University's changing student population, in particular by better supporting students in the transition from school studies to University... [to] support vulnerable students, and to cater to different learning preferences.
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Staff reported that drivers for design often originated from workplace settings... There was a sense that the starting point was a consideration of the types of skills which might be required by our students when they enter post-university employment.
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[it is] is largely dependent on the enthusiasm and drive of the academic championing the programme.'
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departmental concerns over one aspect of the course can expand to create a general climate of openness to change
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A new delivery mechanism can change a design totally... ...so new technologies in particular can drive the design process
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“Sometimes, having a conversation with somebody makes it much clearer than trying to wade through formal documentation that doesn’t necessarily tell you how it actually works”
- some academics are highly innovative, both experienced and new staff, but we do not know exactly what the drivers for innovation are
Some of the drivers for change identified by the Curriculum Design and Curriculum Delivery projects are described in more detail with links to activities and outputs that addressed some of the Challenges.
Those interviewed revealed they had been influenced by personal encounters such as colleagues and friends, conferences, workshops, previous collaboration with other courses and institutions, first hand experience through the demonstration of another course, and teaching ideas from the market.
Resources available from the Design Studio:
You can also search the HE Academy EvidenceNet database for resources
Tagged assets and resources:
Develop or Redevelop
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